Winged Crane
by Sjeherazade
Summary: Mokuba moves to a new school to get real friend, that likes him for who he is and not for the money or because he is Seto Kaiba's brother. But when he has found his friends, he also finds a mystery that he have to solve, because something it very wrong...
1. A new school

Winged Crane

I don't own any original character of Yu-gi-oh

And… Sorry if I'm a trying person now, but I use the Japanese names in my Yu-Gi-Oh fics; Anzu instead of Tea, Honda instead of Tristan, Jono or Jonouchi instead of Joey and so on, and I have NO plans to change. I use their original names and I will continue doing that.

**The new school**

Mokuba Kaiba was tired of all the bastards who just wanted to be his friends because he had money and after the happenings on Duellist Kingdom he finally asked his brother if he could change to a new school.

To his surprise, Seto had immediately agreed to do so and now he sat there in a new desk with a new school uniform and with completely new students around him.

His new teacher was Mr Nakamura, and he was the only one who knew why Mokuba had moved to another class. He hadn't told the other kids, but he had told Mokuba that there were two other kids from wealthy families in his class who had moved for the same reason, to get real friends.

Mokuba was just about to ask him about how those kids have succeeded but then he had changed his mind, he was scared about the answer, actually he didn't believe for a second that it was possible for someone who had that much money to have real friends. At the same time he wasn't really ready to give up either.

He hadn't learned many names yet. His desk neighbour was a girl called Hoshiko, and in the first row sat two girls, who were identical twins, Yumi and Miharu. There was two boys who were identical twins too, they was called Kuma and Kaito.

Sasuka was a girl that he had noticed almost at once, she had the ability to come up with every possible idea or answer. Then there was a boy named Kenta, he was quite chubby but still as quick as Sasuka. A girl named Asuka was quite silent and read books all the time. And the girl Sasuka was talking to that moment was called Tsunami and sat in the row in front of her.

Mokuba looked around trying to remember more names. The boy sitting on Asuka's left side was called Yusuke, and on his left side sat two girls named Sayaka and Natsuko. Natsuko had very long hair in a plait on her back. The boy in front of Mokuba was named Kochiro but for the girl next to Kochiro didn't Mokuba remember any name. He didn't remember the name of the boy next to himself either.

Then there was a girl sitting in a wheelchair, her name was Harumi.

Mokuba woke up from his thoughts when Mr Nakamura's voice got higher to say some last words before the brake. Most of the students rose and left the room to play outside in the sunshine.

Asuka got a book out of her desk and left the classroom. Mokuba and some others remained in there for a moment.

It was then he saw him. The son of Oota Soichiro from "The big five" and he had seen him too.


	2. Oota's son

**Oota****'s son**

"Hi, so you have finally made the right decision too?"

"Your dad kidnapped me" was all he could make his mouth say at the moment. And the answer really surprised him.

"I know, are you coming?"

"What?! Where?"

"Someone have to show you this place and everyone else have already left. And I know my dad can be a complete idiot sometimes" Oota smiled. And for some reason Mokuba began to trust him, at least more than he trusted the older Oota. And soon he had showed Mokuba the way to the computer lab, the library, and the sports ground, the pool area, the school nurse and the principal. At the principal's office Mokuba signed himself up for the school camp, where he hoped to get to know his new classmates' more.

Oota had introduced him for some of the others too. Mimi was the second rich one who had moved to another school to get real friends. When Oota and Mokuba had met her on their way to the pool she had been talking to Harumi, the wheelchair girl, who remained in that chair only because her parents couldn't pay for the operation. They talked on exactly the same level without caring that they belonged to those different social classes. But Mokuba believed that Mimi just hadn't told her yet, even if Oota persisted to point out that Harumi knew everything about Mimi. Mokuba sighed.

"I wish that it would be possible, but I still can't believe it"

"Why did you move to another school then?" Mokuba didn't have a good answer to that.

"Maybe I still want to hope that it is possible"

"Then I have one advice." Oota waited until he had Mokuba's unqualified attention. "First you have to talk with everyone you want to know, tell them everything about yourself and do not hide the fact that you are rich. So do you want to go outside?" Mokuba followed him. Some older students outside the door that Oota had chosen were playing with their skateboards.

"I choose this door for a special reason. Look!" Mokuba looked in the direction Oota had pointed at.

His new classmate Sasuka made her skateboard go faster, she swished over the playground towards the ramp, she swished into it, flew up in the air and turned over one time, two times, three times… Her head would hit the ground. Mokuba closed his eyes tightly but opened them again quickly to see if she was hurt.

Sasuka was standing one foot on her skateboard and let it slide away with her in big applause. Then Mokuba suddenly noticed that Oota was talking to him.

"She can do things on that skateboard that the oldest boys in the school can just dream of doing once in life" Oota smiled, and when Mokuba had got rid of the shock he began to laugh.

"By the way Mokuba, talking about Mimi and Harumi. The class has started a collection to her operation. Mimi and I have only been in it in the end, so that everyone would feel that they could help." he sighed "But really I don't think they feel like that anyway, you know, like their part doesn't really changed anything in the end"

"Is it too late to join?" It was said before he could stop himself, but then he realized that this was really important to him.

"We can speak to Miharu if you want. It was her idea so she is the one who holds the project."

When the break was over Oota told the class this, and they decided to recount their money so Mokuba could be a part of it. At that time Mokuba felt it again, his classmates' were sad for some reason. But Miharu had agreed and even smiled at him and he had really felt like he belonged in this class. Even if he didn't know what had made his new friends so sad. And it wasn't just that he, Oota and Mimi had helped Harumi more than the others could, he knew it was something more.


	3. The origami lotus

**The ****Origami Lotus **

The school day was finally over. Mokuba remained in the classroom until Oota's father had picked him up. Oota had promised him not to tell his dad that Mokuba was his classmate but Mokuba didn't trust him that much yet.

Seto had told him that one of Kaiba crop's limousines would pick him up at five. It was twenty-five minutes left to wait and he was alone in the classroom.

He hadn't been brave enough to tell anyone that he was from a rich family yet. And he hadn't asked anyone why they looked so down when they talked about Harumi. He sighed and looked out through the window. He saw Kaito, Kuma, Yumi, Miharu, Sasuka, Kenta and Asuka waiting for their parents as well. Then he got a whim, he got his books together and ran out to them.

Asuka was reading, as usual. Yumi and the boys told jokes to each other, Sasuka read through a paper that Mr. Nakamura had given her back, at the same time as she now and them laughed at the jokes and Miharu finished her maths homework.

Mokuba noticed that she had another maths book than the others, and it wasn't the book that was given to those who was weak in maths either. Kuma saw were he was looking and explained it for him.

"Miharu is a mathematics genius" he said and smiled at Mokuba. Miharu put her finished homework in her bag again.

"No, I'm not, I just enjoying it"

"Oh yeah, that explains where you gets all those scholarships from" Kaito smiled.

"Maybe" Miharu said and smiled back. Kaito's twin brother Kuma continued.

"She was the one who calculated how we could help Harumi. Miharu sat in a wheelchair before too, but she got a scholarship that paid the entire operation." Miharu got her books together and got to her feet.

"It was quite fun when the others told jokes about Haru-mi and Mi-haru for a start" she admitted. "But there is nothing that is fun with not be able to walk, believe me." Miharu's twin sister Yumi nodded. The twin sisters' had quite long black hair in white headbands and a necklace each, with the hiragana signs for the names Miharu and Yumi on. Kaito and Kuma were identical twins too, and they were even more frustrating than the girls as the boys weren't allowed to have jewellery on the school uniforms. Mokuba got out some capsule monsters from his bag and asked the others if they dared to challenge him. Miharu dared. And she won, big time.

"I'm more into real chess" she said afterwards.

"Me too" Mokuba said happily. But suddenly he noticed that he had succeed to fool himself that those kids was his friends but he didn't dare to tell them that he was Seto Kaiba's brother yet, or that he was rich, even if he had promised himself he would do that, and he actually felt quite bad over his fear.

Yumi's and Miharu's parents came and picked the girls up. Kenta told them some really great jokes, everyone laughed; even Asuka put her book away to listen. Then more and more of them got picked up by their parents or older brothers or sisters and Mokuba looked down into the ground to think. He had begged Seto to sign him in for a new school to get true friends that liked him for who he was and not because of something else, but even if he didn't though it would happen… But Oota and Mimi had succeeded, that was at least what they said.

He looked up again. Nearly everyone had been picked up now. Sasuka was the only one who was still there, she wasn't really that kind of person he wanted to speak with about it but on the other hand, he was afraid that if he didn't told anyone now he would never be able to tell anyone. Sasuka was his last chance. He took several deep breaths…

"Sasuka, I… am an orphaned and when my father died, I was adopted by a rich man…" he had kept his eyes closed when he had spoken but now he opened them. Sasuka had put her paper away and was paying attention to him. When he had come this far in his story in his last school they had laughed at him.

After some hesitating, he continued." My mum died when I was born and my dad died in an aircraft accident, then our relatives gave us away and disappeared with our properties …" Before he knew, he had told her everything, and he hadn't even been interrupted. Sasuka had listened to everything he had to say attentively.

Mokuba didn't believe that it could happen, he was almost in shock, both of the fact that Sasuka had listened to him and the fact that he had told her that much. And then Sasuka said the very last thing he had imagined her to say.

"My mum died when I was born too and my dad died some years later, he was a fisherman and he drowned when his boat sank. But luckily enough we got hid body back some weeks later" Sasuka smiled, she had probably retold that so many times that she didn't even care anymore Mokuba thought, when he had tried to tell her he had been close to tears all the time. She hadn't been stuttering through the entire story like he did and even if he hated to be interrupted himself, he couldn't resist.

"Did your relatives sell you to some rich idiot who almost tortured you to death too?" It was said before he had been able to stop himself, but Sasuka didn't seem angry.

"No, my Granny adopted me" another thing that Mokuba had a hard time to believe. "She is not very rich, we live a bit outside town and she grows tea, and she have never beat me the way you mean, but she have taught me karate and judo and then you have to practice"

"What belt do you have?" Mokuba didn't know why he had asked that, he had so many other, more important questions after listening to Sasuka's story.

"Black, 2 Dan" Mokuba's mouth opened in surprise, and still he had realized from what Oota had told him about Sasuka, that she wasn't like any other girl. "Granny has 4 Dan, the highest rank... " Sasuka went serious again"Kouchiro, Juunichi, and Tsunami is adopted too by the way. Kouchiro's parents died in a car accident, and then his relatives took care of him, Juunichi's adoptive parents couldn't get any children so they adopted five other kids and Tsunami was adopted by a family that had given up trying to get a daughter after twelve sons, she has never met her real parents." Sasuka told him.

"What about Juunichi's parents?" Mokuba asked"What happened to them?" Then Sasuka turned deadly serious, it was so unusual to her that it was both funny and scary to see her face.

"That is something he will tell you himself" she said in a voice that Mokuba didn't dare to challenge.

Both of them were silent for a while, and then Sasuka asked him one of the questions that no of Mokuba's friends in the last school had even thought about.

"Do you remember anything about your real dad?" He was shocked over that the question he always had wanted to hear finally had been asked.

"No, but Seto does" someone had finally asked the question, maybe Oota and Mimi was right after all. Maybe it was possible for him to get true friends. Most to prevent himself from crying he asked: "Do you remember yours?" Sasuka shake her head.

"But wait" she said and opened her bag again. She took out a pair of scissors and a piece of red paper. She cut the paper and began to fold and unfold it. While Mokuba was watching her she made a little lotus flower from the paper.

"According to my Granny, he was the one who taught me how to make these." A quite old car arrived and parked in front of them and an old lady opened the window.

"Come on Sasuka-Chan? We have to reach the fish market before the fish goes rancid." the lady laughed at the joke while Sasuka put the scissors back in her bag, took her skateboard and jumped in beside her.

When they had left, Mokuba looked at the little lotus flower he had in his hand. Sasuka, Juunichi, Kouchiro and Tsunami. It felt so unreal, he wasn't alone. It felt great that it was more kids like him, but at the same time he felt even lonelier than before.

He began to wonder what his life had been like if his and Seto's relatives had been more like Kouchiro's or Sasuka's, or if he and Seto had been adopted by two nice parents that couldn't get their own children or by a family that had only got daughters. Would he have been picked up by a funny, joking old lady like Sasuka's Granny now then? Or could he have thousands of brothers and sisters in his own age to play with, just as Seto could have had. In some ways he could actually see a lot of things with an old lady who grew tea that he preferred before someone like Gosaburou Kaiba.


	4. Sasuka

**Sasuka**

Next day was a Friday and for Mokuba that was a problem. The school ended at twelve. He had thought that it ended four as all the other days.

During this day he had asked Juunichi about his real parents, and the same second he had regret it.

Juunichi's parents had been murdered right in front of him, he had been tied up and forced to watch. Then they had tried to kill Juunichi too, he had arrived to the hospital in time, but the rest of the family hadn't been that lucky.

Suddenly it seemed quite okay to be thrown away by one's relatives and adopted by Gosaborou Kaiba. Mokuba woke up from his thoughts by a bright voice.

"Hey, have you planned to stay hear the entire weekend?" It was Sasuka. "The day is over, we have a break for two days" Sasuka gave him a sunny smile and dragged him out. "Come on!" Soon they stood in the same place as yesterday, waiting to be picked up.

"Sasuka, my brother thinks I'm leaving school by four"

"What?!" Sasuka never got time to ask anything more, her grandmother had already arrived.

"Hi Sasuka Chan."

"Hi granny, this is Mokuba, he started in the class yesterday, his family thinks he will be hear until four as every day" Sasuka's grandmother rose her eyebrow.

"Well, that's not all right is it?" She watched Mokuba who didn't seem to get it. "Have a seat kid, I'll take you home to four, it will be short of time but we can make it."

"We'll visit my mother's relatives in Nagasaki this weekend," Sasuka explained. Mokuba got in to the backseat and then the old lady drove away.

^*^

Sasuka's home was very different to the big house Mokuba and his brother lived in.

It was a small cottage outside Domino. In there, there was ikebana everywhere, most of them was arranged with a practiced hand and looked almost professional but some of them, which was placed on special honorary places in the window, was definitely a work of Sasuka.

Mokuba's eyes fell on a little bonsai tree that was made of two Sakura twigs, it wasn't even a real bonsai tree but still Sasuka's grandmother had placed it in the middle of the window were everyone would see it. One more great difference to Gosaborou.

When Sasuka had changed from the school uniform and came down from her room she showed Mokuba her place.

It was like two different worlds. If you looked out from the front of the cottage you could see Domino. And from the backside you could see a beautiful view, it was like looking on a travel brochure about Japan.

Sasuka showed him the five different kinds of tea her grandmother grew, and behind the cultivation there was several big Sakura trees, and behind these, a forest. And above everything they could see a Buddhist temple.

They walked back to the little terrace and finished their homework there. Then Sasuka's grandmother came out to them with a tray filled with cephalopod fish balls, noodles, fried shrimps and soda.

"Here you have a late lunch, my young friends!" She said and put the tray down.

Mokuba and Sasuka both filled their bowls and began to eat. It really was late, just as the old one said, but as she and Sasuka was about to leave for the weekend to celebrate a birthday, it had to be this way.

"So, what's your parents doing little one?" The old lady asked.

"They're dead, but my brother is the chief executive of Kaibacorp. And I'm vice president" suddenly Mokuba stopped himself. He had told them this thing as if it was the most basic thing in the universe. He nervously turned to Sasuka and her grandmother to see their reaction. Sasuka's eyebrow was raised, and her grandmother shook her head.

"What?" he asked nervously. Sasuka watched him sceptically.

"How can you be a vice president when you're only eleven years old?"

"What's wrong with that?" Sasuka's grandmother sighed before replying that question.

"Nothing except, you are a kid. You shouldn't be vice president, you should take the day as it comes, play, be up to mischief and laugh."

"But…" Mokuba stopped himself as he couldn't find anything to say. He just sat there a while, looking into his bowl. Then Sasuka came up with what seemed as an easy question.

"Are you happy?" Mokuba stiffened.

"What do you mean?"

"You have known Harumi for a week and doesn't know what I mean?" Mokuba got quiet again and just listened to Sasuka. "What do you think Harumi would choose? To be rich and famous and live the same life as she does today, or to live in eternal poverty but be able to walk? Miharu have seen both of those worlds, ask her what choice she would make!"

Suddenly Mokuba notice that he was crying. And then he also noticed that the old lady had sat down closer to him and wrapped her arms around him to comfort him when he cried.

The sun was about to set and some fireflies were dancing around in the air, as if they wanted to make the night more beautiful.

"It's just…" Mokuba began, "No one have ever thought I have any special gift. My brother is a genius, Miharu is a genius and she, Yumi, Kaito and Kuma have twins and Sasuka is world champion at skateboard and you are a girl, which makes it even more fantastic." Both Sasuka and her grandmother smiled.

"So you don't have any special gift?" The old woman asked and smiled even more. "Didn't you say in the car that you were born during the star festival? That is what I call a special gift!" She looked out in the evening. "Anyway, we don't have time for such thins right now. We have to find out which one of us three that is the best when it comes to spit cherry stones and then we have to drive you home and begin this journey if we want to reach Nagasaki before the summer vacation." She passed a plate with cherries to the two children and then they all ate and enjoyed the competition.


	5. The Kite

**The Kite**

The first thing Mokuba saw when he woke up next morning was the origami lotus Sasuka had given to him. He had placed it on his bedside table and there it had remained. Next to the flower was his wristwatch that Seto had bought for him for 5000.

That was the first time he thought in that way. As Seto had that much money 5000 didn't mean anything, he could get a new watch when he wanted one.

The lotus was only one, he wasn't sure if it meant the lotus was more valuable but that was what he felt.

He got dressed and run outside and was nearly at Sasuka's home when he remembered that she was in Nagasaki.

Then it hit him that he had run through Domino without a bodyguard. First he got scared but then he shook his head. He was paranoid… no it was stupid of him to run away like that, after all he had been kidnapped before. Then he began to run home again.

***

After some kilometres he stumbled and fell. When he sat up and examine his leg he noticed that he was bleeding. Then he finally came to the idea of calling Seto and asks him to pick him up.

He put his hand in his pocket only to discovery that he had forgotten his cell phone at home.

"Mokuba?" Mokuba turned around and saw one of the boys' from his new class.

"Yusuke?" Mokuba wiped some tears away.

"Yes, but what happened?" Then Kenta and Juunichi came into sight. Mokuba still felt guilty for that he had asked Juunichi for his story. Now he noticed that Kenta had put his hand on his shoulder.

"Get up now, you can't sit here the entire day" Juunichi and Kenta helped Mokuba on his feet and then they walked to Yusuke's home. His father was a doctor and he took care of Mokuba's wounds in a few seconds. When he had finished, Kenta began to be impatient.

"Can we go now? And Mokuba, you can come with us too!" So Mokuba followed the other boys' to the park. There they met Natsuko, Asuka, Hoshiko and the four twins

"What took you that long time!" Natsuko accused when they arrived.

"Mokuba had a little accident" Juunichi explained and pointed at the bandage. Then he told the others the full history about how they had taken him to Yusuke's father, and then decided to take him with them.

"Okay" Hoshiko said when Juunichi had finished his story, "Does it hurt a lot, I mean, can we write on it without hurting you?"

That was a new thing for Mokuba. At one of the horrible times he and Seto had ended up in different orphanages, one of the big boys had broken his leg and threatened everyone so they had to sign his leg so he could boast. Now he had his own bandage, it was full of names and he hadn't threatened anyone.

"Okay, time to continue before the wind is gone" Kuma said and got up a green half finished kite with red painted teeth. Soon everyone sat in the grass gluing and painting. And then they ended everything with some kind of relay race. Everyone ran around the meadow with the kite and tried to change to the next runner in the speed.

Asuka was the first one to drop it on the ground, she walked over to an old oak to look at the others. Only Juunichi, Kaito and Natsuko succeeded to keep the kite flying until they didn't felt like running anymore. At that time some of the others had run over to food stand and bought some lunch, and then they all sat under the oak and ate.

It was when they sat there and ate and laughed that they caught sight of Harumi and her parents.

It was when Mokuba noticed that his new friends stopped laughing and joking, that he found out what he hadn't seen before.

Harumi was the reason that they were that sad all the time.

But if they had succeeded to earn enough money for her surgery, which meant that she would soon be doing this things with the rest of them too, then it still had to be some detail he hadn't found.

Finally he couldn't stand this anymore, he asked Juunichi when the two of them was on their way home.

"Do you remember the summer camp? That is the same week as the surgery, and when Miharu had her surgery everyone was there to cheer her up. We can't do that this time. Harumi don't want us to stay home from the camp because of her but, at least I feel it's not fair! There you have it!"

Then the both boys turned silent and continued walking.


	6. Harumi

**Harumi**

Next day was a Sunday so Mokuba decided to stay in bed a while. He hadn't got very much sleep that night, he couldn't stop thinking about the problem with Harumi, but if she wanted them to go, then it was no problem? He thought, but he had barely finished his thought before he saw how wrong he was. Of course she said that, he would say the same thing himself, maybe not to the students in his last school, the class with the friends he had had to buy.

But his new friends weren't bought! Harumi, Kuma, Kaito, Miharu, Yumi, Yusuke, Sasuka, Natsuko, Asuka, Hoshiko and Juunichi were his friends, for real. Not some idiots that just did whatever he told them when he snapped his fingers.

Suddenly Mokuba began to laugh, just to imagine Sasuka in that situation was too much, it was ridiculous. And then he thought about what would happen if his other friends and she would end up in the same room, that was even worse, she would really give them what they deserved. Sasuka could give any bully, this was one thing Mokuba was totally convinced about, just as she had even given him before leaving the town for Nagasaki.

Actually they had all done that, every time they had got a chance. Even Oota Jr had, when he showed him the new school. He had just thought him to be like his father, not given him a chance at all, just because his father was an idiot, Oota had been both nice and kind and helpful to him the whole week and he had just been suspicious.

But now when he lay in his bed and looked up in the ceiling Mokuba decided that tomorrow, on the next school day he would be as nice to Oota as he had been to him. He was tired of being suspicious.

And then it was Miharu, she and Mokuba had played capmon six times last week and Miharu had won five times. No one had succeeded with that… except some people he had bribed. Mokuba laughed again. Just the thought that anyone in his new school could be bribed seemed just as unreal as Sasuka being picked on. And Miharu seemed to be last one to bribe in the entire class.

Mokuba wasn't tired anymore so he got up, and just like last morning he caught sight of the origami lotus on his bedside table.

That was just what he needed to impress the other kids. He really wanted to give them something, but not something that would cost thousands of yen, he wanted to give them something that seemed invisible, like an evening of kite flying, eat some snacks under a tree or maybe a competition in spiting cherry stones.

He opened his closet and got out some money, then he ran over to a Sunday-open bookstore. In there he began to brows himself through every origami book he could find. Actually he stayed there until the store wanted to close, that's how fascinated he got.

When a employee put his hand on his shoulder to tell him that they was about to close he rose and took the book that he liked the most and followed him over to the counter. Then the seller noticed the needle Mokuba had on his jacket.

"You're in Harumi's class, aren't you?" Mokuba starred at him in surprise. "I'm her father!" He explained. "What you have done, means a lot to her!" Mokuba suddenly felt very sad.

"But she can't follow us to the summer camp." Harumi's father just shook his head.

"She couldn't have done that anyway. And there are many other things she can't do too! She can't swing, she can't climb trees. Everything that you and the other kids in your class do every day and, just have, was only a dream to her until you came up with this. It doesn't matter what she can't do today, next year she will go to the summer camp with the rest of you and you will have so much fun."

Mokuba walked home with his new book, but he was too tired and confused to try to fold anything and as that wasn't enough Seto was quite upset over something so Mokuba just walked in to the kitchen and heat up some turkey that had been left over yesterday, and then he hid inside his room, ate the turkey and tucked himself to bed and browsed a little in the book before falling asleep.


	7. The Warning

**The Warning**

Before Mokuba went to school next day, he put the origami book and some piece of origami paper, which Harumi's father had given him for free before he had left the bookstore, in his schoolbag. Then he ran out to catch the bus. He met Himeko on the bus, Kochiro's desk neighbour at school; he hadn't got much time to speak to her yet. Honestly, Mokuba thought that Himeko was just too responsible.

She read as much as Asuka and Miharu, but she refuses to read anything just for fun, she read only the books that could earn her some points in school. All right, Miharu did that too, but Miharu wasn't nearly as careful about the rules, and Asuka read everything she could and she was much funnier then Himeko.

Kenta didn't like Himeko either; she had got him into trouble several times when he had played pranks on someone. Mokuba didn't get how Kochiro could stand her every day.

It was a relief when the bus stopped outside the school. It had begun to rain.

Mokuba and Himeko walked over to their lockers and locked their things in. Mokuba began to look for Oota. He had decided that it was time to give him a real chance, just like the other kids, he deserved that. And he was actually about to find out what kind of friend Oota junior really was, very soon.

Suddenly Oota had him pressed against one of the lockers… but whatever Mokuba thought first… he was wrong.

"Mokuba, listen, very carefully. My dad is after you again so be careful when you walk home today!" Then Mokuba suddenly noticed why Oota had pushed him against the lockers, outside there was guards everywhere. The Big five's guards.

Kochiro and Masahiro came running.

"What's going on here?!" Masahiro asked when he reached them.

"It's okay!" Mokuba asked, but then Kochiro and Masahiro took him away from Oota.

"Oota asked us to walk by and save you from him." Kochiro explained. "He wanted to play an act for his dad. What is this all about?"

Mokuba began to tell them that Oota's father had kidnapped him once. He stopped when Tsunami, Sayaka, Sae, Natsuko and Miharu came out from the girl's bathroom… at least he thought it was Miharu until she had come close enough for him to read the hiragana sign Yu-Mi on her necklace.

Most of those girls Mokuba had got to know quite well last week, but Sae was still new for him and Mokuba didn't want their relation to begin with the story about his and Oota's families.

One thing felt fine anyway. Oota had warned him, which was very brave of him, Mokuba knew that. At the same time this meant that he owes him.

Mokuba came up with the perfect plan during the lunch break. It was quite simple… Sasuka. She had helped him before and would certainly do it again. And with her grandmother in the area no one would try to take him, after all she was a legendary karate champion. He decided to ask her during the last recess.

Unfortunately something happened during the lunch brake that brought that plan down.

Sasuka's skateboard had escaped from her, she fell and her head had hit the ground. Before the next class her grandmother, who had taken her car directly after the phone call, had come to take her to the doctor.


	8. The Rescue

**The Rescue**

Mokuba was shocked when Kenta told him what had happened to Sasuka.

Fortunately Sasuka wasn't seriously injured, she would only be forced to stay in bed for a few days and according to Kenta she was okay, at least for a girl that had got injured. But for Mokuba this meant that he would presumably be kidnapped at the end of the day.

Mokuba and Kochiro sat in the computer lab and put the information to their common school project about ancient Egypt together when Kenta had arrived with this news. Mokuba couldn't concentrate after that. He came up with some silly excuse that he had to go to the library and look for some more information about some small and unimportant detail and then he left, happy that Kenta and Kochiro fell for it.

He locked himself in on the boy's toilet and cried. He was frightened now, he had got used to the thoughts that the big five would try to kidnap him at any time, more or less, but to know that it would happen in a few hours was too much for him.

And then it was Sasuka. He had believed her to be a girl who could do everything, that she was immune of things like accidents and tragedies. The fact that she had been into anything like this had, in a very unpleasant way brought Mokuba back to reality.

Suddenly he felt that he had to do something. All this had made him restless. First Oota had warned him for his father and then Sasuka had got a conclusion.

He walked away to his locker and took out his origami book and some paper, and then he walked to the silent room in the library and began to fold. He browsed in the book to find the half finished thing he had tried to fold for two days. He actually felt a little better when he folded and refolded the paper.

About as good as a lifetime prisoner who waited for his execution.

Mokuba put the little flower that didn't look like a flower yet, away. He couldn't concentrate on it. He walked out in the library again instead, to try to find the little unimportant detail he had invented to sneak away.

Oota was there.

"Mokuba, how are you?"

"Fine!" Mokuba lied and gave him a false smile but Oota didn't believe him.

"No, you're not, it's okay they can't see us from this windows!" He said and pointed at the window in the library. "You seem tired and nervous and you have cried!" Mokuba gave up, if they could see that he had been crying he couldn't deny it, especially not to Oota.

The rest of the day passed and finally it was time to go home. Mokuba decided to try to sneak out with the other kids and disappear into the crowd.

For a while is actually seemed as he had succeed. It was first when he changed to another street and saw the guards' reflections in a shop-window he knew that he couldn't escape.

Then he caught sight of the Yamamizo twins, they was about to change to another street.

When Mokuba saw them he got new hope, he began to run up to them. Yumi's and Miharu's father was a police officer, so no one would dare to do anything to him as long as he was with them he thought.

In a few seconds Mokuba had explained everything for the twins. They reacted immediately. Miharu showed him a short cut and then all three of them sneaked away. They arrived to the Yamamizo's home. Their father had taken over the situation from there, as soon as they had explained to him what it was all about. He drove Mokuba home and began an inquiry. But Mokuba couldn't go out anymore. From this moment he had to have someone near him everywhere.


	9. Never Alone

**Never alone**

The next days he was afraid that the others would begin to dislike him or be jealous. But he had found something else. One day he had followed Kenta and Sasuka to the library during a recess when Kenta suddenly couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"How do you stand out with this corrections officer guarding you all the time." He whispered in Mokuba's ear, only Sasuka was close enough to hear. Sasuka still had her head in a bandage but except from that she was the same wild and happy girl as usual, like if nothing had happened. Mokuba sighed to answer this question, the only thing with the last incident, was that he finally knew. He had real friends, even Oota was a true friend, especially Oota.

The three of them walked inside the library and sat down with a school project each. Sasuka had chosen to write about the volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean along with Tsunami. A project that suited both of those girls perfect, in Mokuba's opinion.

His own new project was about some random chosen saint that he had picked because he hadn't come up with anything better. Kenta hadn't found anything to write about yet.

Soon Masahiro, Natsuko, Miharu, Yumi, Hoshiko, Kochiro, Tsunami and Asuka arrived to finish their projects too.

Tsunami sat down beside Sasuka and began to tell her about a film about volcanoes she had found. Sasuka got really exited over that news, they could use that movie when it was time to show the rest of the class.

Miharu had already finished her project so she sat down in the window and looked down. The library was on the third floor so Mokuba's bodyguards didn't have to follow him there, it was only three of them in the library. Anyway, Miharu didn't like them, they made her feel bad, and the fact that there was about a hundred more of them in the playground didn't made it any better.

The entire school reminded her of a prison when they were there. Everyone felt as bad as Mokuba over that the bodyguards had invaded the school. Sasuka was the only one who Mokuba hadn't seen any sign of it yet. As the doctors had forbidden her to use her skateboard on the recesses until she could take off the bandages she seemed much calmer, but no one knew if it was the injuries or the other thing.

Mokuba put his essay away for a while and tried to fold something from his origami book again. It always made him relax and feel better now. It was just too much he didn't enjoyed right now. He had got used to the life where he didn't have to have his bodyguards all the time these last days, and now that had been taken away from him.

Still that was just a very small part of what irritated him. The big part of it was Harumi. It didn't really matter if two hundred bodyguards followed you every move, not if you compared it with how it would be if you couldn't move at all.

He sighed, it couldn't even be compared. What right did he have to sit there and feel sorry for himself, he wished that there was some way they could both go to the camp and stay in Domino when Harumi would have her operation. For some reason he even said that loud.

"And how had you planed to do that?" Masahiro asked in a voice that clearly showed what he thought about that idea.

Mokuba immediately regret that he had said anything at all but then he heard Miharu gasp in the window. When Mokuba looked at her he saw that she stared at him. Then she jumped down from the window and leaped over to him.

"Wait, maybe it can be done!" Was all she said, then she steeled Mokuba's origami book from him and began to browse. Masahiro didn't understand anything.

"What? Do you mean you have found out some way to be in two different places at the same time?!"

"Maybe!" Miharu answered. Mokuba had known Miharu long enough to know that if she said, maybe, when anyone asked her if she could figure something out, then the true answer was, yes. The other kids knew that too, and soon all of them was gathered behind Miharu and watched her while she browsed over the different pictures and diagram's.

Finally she stopped browsing, on the picture there was a beautiful origami crane in blue paper, it spread the wings to the wind like if it was flying.

"Look!" Miharu said, and then she began to read. "It says that if someone folds 1000 cranes, it means luck, and it can cure the sick."

"Thousand?!" Hoshiko almost screamed. But Miharu had already got her idea.

"We are 38 students in the class, if we don't count Harumi we will be 37. That means we have to fold about 27 cranes each, and one of us have to fold 28. Then we hang them over her bed in the hospital before we go to the camp." She didn't need to say anything more, everyone liked the idea. And as Harumi already had left for the hospital there wasn't any difficult to tell the rest of the class.

After school they all ran away to a paper shop and choose papers in every thinkable colours and patterns. Then they walked over to Mokuba's home as it was the only home where he would be safe from the big five. When all of them had learned to fold the bird, they made 27 each, except for Sayaka who folded 28.

Then everyone went home except Sasuka, who would go to the hospital on another visit since the accident anyway, and Kuma, Kaito, Sae, Sayaka, Miharu and Yumi. They walked to the hospital instead and while Sasuka went to see the doctor, the others went in to Harumi's room, Harumi had already been taken away to the operation room, and hang up the cranes in threads from the ceiling. Unfortunately Harumi wouldn't wake up until they had gone to the summer camp, but that didn't matter, not anymore. Her friends would still be there when she woke up. That's what friends are for…


	10. Winged Crane

**Winged Crane**

It was impossible to tell if the room was light or dark, warm or cold. But it didn't matter. Harumi was scared, and she had pain everywhere after the operation.

She didn't dare to open her eyes on the entire morning. She didn't even know what she was afraid of, maybe that her legs would be gone. That was actually possible and it did scare her. She didn't dare to try to move her legs, what if it didn't work. Finally she happened to think about Miharu, they had succeeded to save Miharu.

Harumi and Miharu; that was what the other kids had called them before Miharu's operation. For some reason thinking of Miharu gave her the courage she needed to open her eyes.

What Harumi saw almost gave her a shock. The entire ceiling was full of origami cranes. White, red, green, black, pink, yellow, turquoise, purple, blue, gold and silver, there was no colour that wasn't represented up there.

And the same about the patterns there was checked, dotted, striped, some of them had flowers, stars and animals on them, one was decorated with beautiful hand-held fans, another one with sunflowers, a third with balloons in different colours.

But there were also a few cranes that were folded from paper from a notebook. Those had something written on them but Harumi couldn't read them, the world was still too blurred.

She would be able to read them if they wasn't that far away, she thought. That's how she decided to try to move. She did it very slowly, it was painful but she actually succeeded to use her legs a little, not enough to leave her bed but still enough to read on the notebook cranes.

She saw what she needed to see, and she just had to read on a few of them to understand it all. They were signed with hiragana signs, it was the names of her classmates.

Harumi sank down in her bed again. She wasn't afraid anymore.

^*^

The boys woke up when someone started to beat the door. It was too early to go up and none of them really wanted to leave their beds. But finally they couldn't ignore the beating anymore.

Mokuba hid under his quilt and listened to Juunichi when he got up and opened the door. It was Sae and Yumi.

"Come out, you have to see this!" The girls insisted. When the boys' didn't seem to understand, Sasuka ran in to them and made so much chaos that they were forced out of bed to see what they wanted to show them.

The view outside was just too magnificent. The sky was still pink as it used to be in early morning and the lake reflected it in the water to make the picture even more perfect, but it wasn't this that made all this so special.

Over the lake, over the entire sky, a flock with thousands of craned were flying. The classmates watched them without a word. They all knew what it meant. On their next school trip they would be one more.

The end

**Note/ This ****are the end of this story, but I still have a little more about those characters so I will write another fanfic about them in about a month. Hope to see you soon^_^ **


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